Egypt’s Ruling Military Under Renewed Pressure to Cede Power

Dec. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Egypt’s ruling military council came
under renewed pressure to speed up the transition to civilian
rule, after opposition groups said it hadn’t relinquished enough
authority in the wake of the uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak.

The council swore in a new Cabinet this week and gave Prime
Minister Kamal el-Ganzouri presidential powers, although these
exclude oversight of the military and judiciary, it said. The
army has said it will remain the ultimate authority in Egypt
until a president is elected next year.

“We reject the government of el-Ganzouri,” said Ahmed
Maher, co-founder and coordinator of the April 6 Youth Movement,
one of the groups behind the revolt against Mubarak that has
staged a sit-in outside the Cabinet building. “This whole thing
is an attempt to maneuver around our demands. We want a real
national salvation government that represents the people and
represents Tahrir Square,” he said, referring to the nearby
plaza that has been the focus of protests in Cairo.

The Arab world’s most populous country is in the early
stages of elections that are expected to give Islamist groups
the largest share of seats in parliament in January. The Muslim
Brotherhood, whose Freedom and Justice party secured the most
ballots in the first round of voting last week, said yesterday
it wouldn’t take part in a civilian consultative body being
formed by the military council.

Draft Constitution

Party members “felt they would be uncomfortable with the
authorities,” said Mahmoud Ghozlan, spokesman for the
Brotherhood, without elaborating. His comments came after the
Associated Press cited a member of the military council, Mukhtar
el-Mullah, as saying that parliament won’t be representative
enough to oversee the drafting of a constitution, and that the
army would appoint a council to check the influence of religious
extremists on the process.

“Who then represents the people? All political currents
are represented in the parliament,” said Ghozlan. “Do they
want a parliament with no powers?”

The Nour party, which represents Salafi Islamists, came
second in the first round of voting, which covered Cairo and
eight other provinces. The main secular alliance contesting the
vote, the Egyptian Bloc, came third with about 13 percent of
votes for party lists in the first round, official results show.
The strong performance by Egypt’s religiously oriented groups
follows victories by Islamist parties this year in Morocco and
Tunisia, where the wave of uprisings began a year ago.

Electoral System

Due to the complexity of the electoral system, in which
people cast votes for party lists as well as individual
candidates, the makeup of parliament won’t become clear until
final results are announced on Jan. 13. Nor will the balance of
power between the assembly, the Cabinet and the ruling military
council.

Egyptians abroad started voting yesterday for the second
round of elections, which covers Giza, Suez, Ismailia and six
other governorates, the state-run Middle East News Agency
reported. In Egypt, voting in that round begins on Dec. 14. The
third round begins on Jan. 3 and final results are due 10 days
later. Presidential elections will be held by the end of June,
the army has said.

Whatever government emerges in the coming months must
tackle an economy that grew at the slowest pace in at least a
decade as a result of the unrest that forced Mubarak out in
February and deterred tourism and investment. Gross domestic
product expanded 1.8 percent in the fiscal year through June,
and Egypt has spent almost half its foreign currency reserves in
the past 11 months.

The pound closed the week at a seven-year low of 6.0174 per
dollar. Said Hirsh of Capital Economics and Turker Hamzaoglu at
Bank of America Corp. are among economists to have warned that
the government may be forced to devalue the currency.